Mr Jim Mansfield yesterday gave a sworn undertaking not to carry out any more work on his City West conference centre pending court proceedings.
He was in Dublin District Court where South Dublin Council was prosecuting his company, HSS Ltd, for failing to obey an enforcement notice.
The court heard that Mr Mansfield would be vigorously contesting the prosecution and was seeking an adjournment. The council opposed this and said it was ready to go ahead in what was a matter of some urgency.
Counsel for the company said it would be challenging the validity of a third-party objection by An Taisce as it was lodged on the very last day open to it on December 8th last.
It would not be up to An Bord Pléanála to decide whether it was valid, and if it did so the legal proceedings themselves might not be valid. It could be 18 weeks before the board made its decision.
The defence needed more time to consider a document provided to it by the council as part of the discovery procedure in advance of the court case.
A number of issues had been raised as a result of this document which could lead to the conclusion that the underlying motivation behind the proceedings was not bona-fide.
There was also a question over whether the area of the alleged offence mentioned in the enforcement notice was the same as that mentioned in the summons.